Catastrophe
by vulcan X
Summary: A strange new case with terrifying consequences for Jess, Nicole and Antonio. CHAPTER 2 ADDED.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or features of the television series Missing.

_One step … another step… Jess was walking slowly down the middle of the highway, her head down … focused, trying her best to keep each careful tread on the central white line. Something jolted her and made her lose her footing. What was that sound? It came from her left … no, her right … no? What was it? It sounded like a baby … crying. But where was it? The sound was louder now. She could hear it quite clearly. And now … she could see … a car … and a small shape through the back window … a child? The car was moving away. Faster and faster! She must catch it. She began to run. She called over her shoulder to Nicole. _

"_Come on, Nicole! We can't let it get away". _

_She ran faster and faster. But the crying was becoming softer and softer. She could barely hear it. Now, she couldn't hear it!_

"_Nicole! Help me!" she yelled. She looked over her shoulder. Nicole wasn't there! She had to keep running after the car. She was getting nearer! She could clearly see the child lying prone in the back of the car. She reached out her hand to grab … _

Jess blinked and looked down at the broken mug and spilt coffee on her kitchen floor. Wasn't it in her hand a moment ago? She tried to catch her breath … to slow her heart rate. Her visions were becoming more and more real each time. She did not know for how long she had been insensible to all but this terrifying hallucination. She reached for her cell phone. She had to tell Nicole what she saw, maybe she would be able to make sense of it. A glance at the clock showed her that it was already 8.30 a.m. She had just enough time to get to work on time. She would talk to Nicole at the office. Jess grabbed her coat and handbag and rushed out the door. Cleaning up would wait.

Nicole would not have been able to answer the phone anyway. At that moment she was retching over her toilet bowl.

"Damn that paella! It's been two days and it's still messing up my system!" She complained.

She lifted her head, still a little woozy with the violence of the expulsion and moved towards the sink and its cool water. But the swaying motion only created another wave of nausea which sent her rushing back to the toilet bowl until she felt completely emptied. The episode left her spent but she was just about able to clean up, change and head off to work vowing to herself to avoid any further late night champagne and paella feasts with anyone named Paul.


	2. Chapter 2

_Sorry about the long delay in posting this chapter. Deadlines … deadlines …. Deadlines!_

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of the Missing television series.

No one would ever call Assistant Director John Pollock, head of the FBI Special Investigative Task Force… a patient man, and right now he was chomping at the bit, eager to get on with this new case. As he would admit to anyone who asked, he liked to get the job done fast and well … regardless of the cost. This case, however, was a special one; it dealt with a little boy. Someone had snuck into the child's bedroom and snatched him away from his parents in the middle of last night. Pollock's fist clenched the case folder lying open on his desk. Involuntarily his eyes flew to the photograph of his children in its simple silver frame. The thought of either being abducted caused his heart to compress suddenly. His face distorted with the sharp pain. It lasted only a second but there was left a cold clammy sensation at the pit of his stomach. He could only imagine the fear and the suffering of little Alexander's parents. Mentally he tried to fit the pieces of the puzzle they already had into some sort of coherent picture but he could not. Impatient as he was, he had to wait.

On seeing Scott and Mastriani approach, he closed the case folder, transformed his face into its usual impenetrable mask and rose to greet them.

"Welcome, young ones! Today's mission … ", He began.

In fifteen minutes, Jess and Nicole had been succinctly apprised of the details of the new case, major suspects had been evaluated and they were then admonished to resolve the case speedily. They were now on their way to Agent Cortes' lab to see what evidence had been left at the scene. At the laboratory door, Nicole hesitated, even though weeks had passed since their breakup. She let Jess lead the discussion of the evidence while she observed him subtly. To an indifferent observer, his voice and manner to her were normal but she noticed when he flinched almost imperceptibly as she greeted him and how he shifted away slightly as she drew closer. Her bottom lip twitched with the anguish. Did he think she was going to hurt him … more? Guilt, regret and some other undefined sentiment warred for supremacy in the muddle that were her emotions. She shrugged away the pain. At least it wasn't the paralyzing fear she felt at times during their relationship. A fear she did not want to explore.

She sighed silently.

"I want to go back to how it was before!" was her unbidden thought. But before what?

She turned to pay closer attention to what Jess was saying.

Jess smiled at Antonio and asked: "Any information on the parents of Alexander Putin?

He turned to the computer screen and pointed out "Nothing seems irregular. Well-educated couple. He's a physicist at a regional nuclear plant and she is a university professor. Modern literature – head of her department. Nothing unusual about their lifestyle or bank accounts."

"Any evidence that Mr. Putin may be a target for terrorists or others wanting some sort of information?" Nicole asked.

"None that I can know of but it would be advisable to find that out when you interview." Antonio responded; his head still turned towards Jess.

"What about the crime scene?" Jess inquired.

"Forced entry on the second floor window but no finger prints. We can get footprints however. There seems to have been only one intruder. Now we just need to determine who he or she is." He concluded.

Having obtained as much information as presently available from Antonio, the agents then decided to take Jess' car to the home of the parents of the kidnapped boy. But as Jess unlocked the door to her car, the hairs on the back of her neck rose and her world suddenly turned black …

_The space around her was completely filled with the sounds of the wailing baby. The cries were loud and insistent … And then she saw him. A small child sniffling as he curled up into a ball on the floor. She rushed across to him but she could not touch him. As she reached out to him, he seemed to move further away. _

"_Alexander, is it you?" Jess cried out. She got no response._

_She shouted out again. "Alexander, can you hear me? Where are you?"_

_Then she was pulled back down the centre of a road, again the central white line. But this time she could see a large cross … tilting … falling down? And below it was Alexander. She called out to him again._

_This time the little head lifted up and his glazed eyes seemed to be searching for her. He stretched out a hand. Jess reached out her own arm to touch his …._

"Jess … Jess … Is everything alright?" Nicole nudged her gently.

Jess blinked as the vision abruptly ended. She started shivering as her body reacted to what she had seen.

She turned to Nicole. "Damn, it's becoming more and more real each time." She said shakily.

"Tell me what you saw!" Nicole urged.

Jess related the details of her vision to Nicole.

"I have no idea where he is, Nicole. He is in danger and I don't know if we will be able to save him." She ended.

Nicole flipped open her cell phone. "Well, we have a start. Let's get Antonio looking for links with what you've seen and maybe by the time we return from interviewing the parents, he'll have something."

She smiled teasingly at Jess. "But I'm doing the driving."


End file.
